The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) told The Local last week that there has been a rise in the number of Kurds applying for asylum in Germany: More Kurds applied for asylum status in just the first six months of this year than in all of 2015.

The office did not have figures for how many had applied since the failed coup in July – and since Erdogan has enacted mass detentions of his suspected opponents in the aftermath. But now the Kurdish Community of Germany says that there could be a mass wave of Kurdish asylum seekers because of the events since the putsch attempt.

“I expect that in the short-term there will be 10,000, and in the midterm some 100,000 people from Turkey seeking asylum in Germany if the Erdogan regime continues to fight the minorities and the democratic opposition,” Kurdish Community leader Ali Toprak told Die Welt.

Toprak said that within Turkey, an estimated 500,000 Kurds are already fleeing their homes because of Turkish government actions in the southeast.

“Many will want to start over in Europe if they continue to be oppressed in Turkey. It cannot be the case that a country that itself takes in refugees also produces refugees.”

Die Welt points out that even before the failed putsch, people in Turkey had reason to seek asylum in Germany: Between 1986 and 2011, Turkish was the main country of origin of asylum applicants in the Bundesrepublik.